Firstly, I'd like to reply to the comment by anonymous on "Ashes 2009 Preview", I tried commenting a long paragraph but it didn't work, then I tried commenting a few words and there was no problem in it so I think you couldn't post it because it was too long. Anyways, thanks for your comment.
Now, this is my first post since the First Test against West Indies. I'm tired of watching England winning convincinly against West Indies. These two sides have played 16 matches against each other this year (including the warm-up before ICC World T20 and the Test in the Carribean in which only a few balls were bowled.) They will play against each other again in the quaterfinals since both teams have almost made it to the quaters. I don't expect West Indies to win against England this time either. They look such a weak side against England that it surprised me that they defeated Australia with about 4 overs to spare.
There have been a few upsets in the ICC World T20, West Indies defeating Australia, Ireland defeating Bangladesh, Netherlands defeating England. It is considered an upset that Ireland defeated Bangladesh but I expected it to be a match between equal sides. Ireland have now played two ICC events, World Cup 2007 and this year's World T20 and they have reached the quaterfinals of both! They couldn't qualify for ICC World T20 2007 in which Zimbabwe beat Oz. It's a pity that Zimbabwe, which was among the best teams once, couldn't even qualify for an ICC event. Actually, their board wouldn't let them qualify for anything. They had players like Heath Streak, Andy Flower (Current England team director) but now the all black team cannot be counted in the World Top 10 Teams. Ireland, on the other hand has been rising, the only problem is that all their players think in only one way- play in English County, make it to the Ireland side and if you are good enough, play for England. Eoin Morgan, who averages nearly 35 in ODIs was picked for the England side after playing 23 ODIs for Ireland. Ed Joyce, who helped Ireland qualify for the ICC World Cup 2007 was seen donning the three lions blue jersey in the World Cup.
When Netherlands defeated England, the faces of English cricketers and the headlines in the newspaper the next day told it all. The headlines were like, this was the darkest day in English cricket blah, blah, blah. Former English cricketers were all over the current England team who were quieter than ever. Perhaps it was the perfect thing. After winning 3 series in a row (against West Indies), 2 warm up games (West Indies, Scotland), they needed to be shaken, before the big quaterfinal games. I've always felt that it's better to play against a team of your standards than to play against minnows. If you win against them, you won't receive many complements but if you lose, everybody will come down pounding on you. In that match, Netherlands didn't play like a minnow. Usually when you see a match between minnows, you will realise that they are either good in bowling or batting, like Bangladesh have a few hitters, Ireland and Scotland have a few good bowlers. I like Seelar! And his celebration is nice to watch.
In the match against Netherlands, England bowled well, batted well. The only flaw was that they missed 6 run outs- 3 in the last over by Stuart Broad. Broad's career has been a bit tragic so far, when Yuvraj Singh (stupid Indian slogger) hit 6 sixes in an over, I did not feel like criticising Stuey, just wanted to give him a kiss to make him fell better...lol. Grounds in South Africa are petite so it's easier for the batsman. But T20 is not hell for bowlers in England. The last over Stuey bowled against Netherlands was superb, all 6 bowls were good. Only 1 or 2 of them went to the fielder, 4 or 5 bowls went to the keeper/bowler. I felt sorry for him at the end.
I think England are going to beat West Indies again so they have to defeat either India or South Africa to reach the semis. Hope they do well. Cheers.